


Evaluation of Character

by UnrealRomance



Series: Impressions and Deductions [4]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 20:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6298654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnrealRomance/pseuds/UnrealRomance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thane begins to take Shepard's measure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Evaluation of Character

The information comes through Lawson's contacts. Shepard goes pale when she hears it, and immediately orders all of us to be ready for a fight.

We head for Geth space to retrieve her Quarian friend, Tali. Who has failed to check in with her overseers. The concern and determination warring for space on Shepard's face paint a very precise picture.

' _The Quarian seemed young, perhaps just recently off her pilgrimage. From the way Shepard speaks of her, she is very protective of Tali.'_ So protective, she decides to take Grunt, the Krogan and Vakarian with her.

Shepard only takes two others on a normal mission. It surprises me when she also taps the Professor and myself to go down with her.

Vakarian and I are to be snipers, and the Professor and Krogan are to be on the front lines with her. She is either very worried or we are in for a long, arduous fight.

All is quiet when we touch down on the desert-like planet. Radiation is a concern, blinding and burning. We must creep from shadow to shadow until we come upon the first waves of our enemies.

Shepard called this place _Haestrom_ and muttered to herself about the fitting name. 'Hate storm' she says, is hiding within that name. I cannot say that I disagree with her, the planet itself is not hostile but the inhabitants and the sun are both a strong argument for her.

The enemy are Geth, as I had first suspected. I don't know much more about them than most. I know how to kill them, I have a basic understanding of their base programming- but their behavior is a mystery to me. I don't know their new directive, and from Shepard's frantic need for more information- I'm going to assume she does not either.

She asks the Professor to hack them as well as he is able, and send whatever data he can recover to Vakarian. He is a tech expert of sorts and without her Quarian he is the best she can depend on. The Professor is a scientist, and proficient in tech when it comes to battle, but he is a biological man first and foremost. He tells her so.

" _Am not inventor, Shepard. Just scientist._ " His voice crackles over the comm, most likely damaged by the sun's radiation. " _Will try. Find your friend._ "

" _Thank you, Mordin_." She is grim, but gratitude is hidden there in her voice.

She directs Garrus and I to either side of the battlefield and instructs the Krogan with a terse tone. " _Grunt, don't stay in the sunlight too long. You're durable, but it'll burn you just as easily as it will us if you aren't careful. Hit the Geth in the head if you can, but a hit to the chest is more effective when you've got a shotgun._ "

The Krogan laughs. " _Heh heh heh._ "

She is sticking close to him, drifting along in his shadow as he tears through the opposition and the Professor follows in their wake, hacking for information and collecting any bits of machinery that catch his fancy.

We make it across the long stretch of machinery strewn battle-field without much incident, though Shepard seems jumpier than usual.

' _This is the Krogan's first mission.'_ I realize with a sudden spurt of intuition. _'She is sticking close because she is worried.'_

It is a motherly thing to do, though it doesn't quite surprise me as much as it might have a week ago. Not when I've seen her dote on Jack and intercede in petty squabbles that didn't demand her attention because she likes it when everyone gets along. Not when I've noticed how she always buys a package of dextro candies- no matter the kind- to give to Vakarian when he's up late calibrating the Normandy's weapon systems.

Especially not when I've noticed her lingering with Kasumi and Samara in their respective rooms, leaving them with red-rimmed eyes or sorrowful expressions. I do not know what turmoil the both of them hide in their hearts, but she shares it with them, whatever it might be.

Shepard has found evidence of Quarian presence on Haestrom and some hope that Tali'Zorah is still alive.

Vakarian finds some evidence in the recovered code that there is a place nearby where Tali may be holed up, resisting attack.

The closer we get to this place, the more Shepard darts ahead of the rest of her team. She is anxious, feeling protective and somewhat irritated with the whole situation. I can tell from the way she keeps cursing and shoots the Geth aiming in the Krogan's direction. No one comments on the running muttering commentary she keeps up the whole way there.

" _Fucking machines that shoot people, why couldn't the Quarians have just gone with the microwave? Or the blender, or the fucking computer? They had to give them arms and legs._ " She rolls into a shadow and takes cover while her shields recover. _'Humans made machines to tend to fields that had wheels, they sprayed water and turned the soil but they didn't talk to you.'_

There is an impediment to the way forward, a fallen pillar that must be blown out of the way. There are explosive charges nearby, horded by Tali and her team of Quarian marines. Marines who are willing to die for the young woman.

' _Is Tali'Zorah particularly special in some way? Rather than simply being beloved?'_

Shepard tears her way through entire waves of Geth to get to the demolition charges and blows the pillar with extreme prejudice.

She does not even wait for the dust to settle before rushing to the door and hacking it open.

There is a graveyard inside. Dead Quarians and Geth alike, strung over the floor like so many pieces of trash. It resonates wrong.

Shepard's choked noise of despair echoes my sentiment. Vakarian curses. The Professor sighs at the sight, and the Krogan child simply blinks. Full-grown in a tank, treated to violent imagery from creation, he is innocent and corrupt in unequal measures.

There is a surviving Geth, crawling across the floor.

Shepard walks up to it and raises her pistol to its head. It peers up at her, frozen.

She blinks, and drops her weapon. "Fuck." She walks away from the broken Geth and it watches her go with a whirring lens.

The rest ignore it, as if it doesn't exist. Respecting Shepard's small act of mercy for a broken machine. _'It would be safer to shoot it...but I suppose it doesn't hurt anyone to leave it alone unless it reaches for a gun.'_ In fact the Geth has curled up and begun repair protocols, it seems.

' _Mercy.'_ Something that not many would be able to muster for an enemy like the Geth. Mechanical and deadly as they are. Someone like Shepard, with her worry and her anger- her protective rage peaking, she shouldn't pause. Shouldn't think twice about shooting a Geth, killing it. But she does.

Tali'Zorah is able to contact us through a terminal, and she brightens at the sight of Shepard. " _Please, Shepard. Don't let any more Marines die if you can help it._ "

"I'm on my way, Tali." Shepard nods and Tali relaxes.

We move on, and I analyze what I see, what I've seen. _'Tali'Zorah trusts Shepard implicitly, to try to save her people- doesn't question that she will save_ her _, it is a certainty. There is no bargaining or apologies, they understand their situations and stand together in the face of them.'_

Someone who can forge bonds through war is someone dependable indeed, or so it would seem.

Shepard dispatches with all pretense and pulls out the experimental collector beam weapon that Mordin finally cleared for her use.

I would like to call the battle violent and bloody, but that seems inadequate.

We come upon a male Quarian, a marine with a rocket launcher, attempting to hold off the Geth for as long as possible. Shepard is high-strung, upset. She shouts him down when he attempts to make a suicidal play. She respects his courage, it is in every word she speaks to him- but she has seen enough death today.

When the Geth are dead, the larger machine blown to pieces with missiles and beam ammo, Shepard is able to relax.

She embraces Tali when she sees her, and draws her in tight to her side as they converse. Arm over the Quarian's shoulder, face open and relieved.

"Can you come with me now?" She asks, so hopeful and so worried.

Tali'Zorah nods. "If the flotilla doesn't like it, they can kiss my...well. My people died for so little data, I hope it was worth it." Spoken with venom, confusion, pain.

Shepard is proud. She offers to transport the remaining marine when he walks into the room with a limp, but he declines. She allows this, when she would not otherwise.

She has Tali, and the marine needs to nurse his wounds and his pride.

Shepard is a merciful woman, but vengeful when the situation calls for it. She is dangerous to anyone who threatens her family, the innocent or those she calls comrade.

She is a contradiction unto herself, but perhaps she is not so much of an enigma as an...impossibility.

She shouldn't exist as she does, but she does.


End file.
